Saturday, February 9, 2008
U.S.: Security forces for future Palestinian state will require $7b (Haaretz)
A Palestinian security plan backed by Washington calls for consolidating Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' forces into a nearly 50,000-member gendarmerie that can both police civilians and rein in militants who could try to block any future peace deal.
Internal cost estimates for the overhaul, ranging from $4.2 billion to $7 billion over five years, were compiled by U.S. security officials and their Palestinian counterparts, and recently shared with Israel and foreign diplomats, who expressed doubts that donors would produce such large sums anytime soon.
Only $86 million in funding from the United States has materialized so far to help build up Abbas' forces, which were routed from the Gaza Strip in June by Hamas Islamists who oppose the peace talks.
The funding gap highlights one of the biggest hurdles facing a U.S. push to reach a statehood agreement.
Even if a deal is reached before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office next January, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has vowed not to implement it until Abbas reins in militants, both in the West Bank, where his Fatah faction dominates, as well as in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. (Link)
Labels: Israel, Palestine, U.S.
Panel Gains Right to See C.I.A. Tapes (NY Times)
Congressional investigators have been given permission to review interrogation tapes of a terrorism suspect as part of an inquiry into the destruction of other tapes by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to a letter sent Thursday to the House Intelligence Committee.
The letter, sent by Craig S. Morford, acting deputy attorney general, said that the tapes were in the possession of the C.I.A., but did not identify the individual being interrogated or the nationality of the interrogators. Up to now, Congress has been prohibited from seeing or listening to any video or audio tapes depicting the interrogations of terrorism suspects.
The letter was sent to Representative Silvestre Reyes, the Texas Democrat who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
It is unclear how the C.I.A. came to possess the tapes. C.I.A. officials have said that the agency had videotaped only two detainees from Al Qaeda, and that those tapes were destroyed in 2005.
Iraqi groups 'withdraw' US support (Al Jazeera)
The move has been seen as a significant blow to the US, which has hailed the groups' work in securing towns and neighbourhoods as a rare success in increasing security in the country.
...........
In Diyala province, a curfew has been imposed after the Sunni Awakening Councils ended patrols of towns and neighborhoods.
Iraqi police nab 31 Shi'ite activists south of Baghdad (Jerusalem Post)
The US troops were killed Friday - four in Baghdad and one in the northern Tamim province, the military said. At least 3,958 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Saturday marked a third day of US and Iraqi operations in an area that includes several Shiite holy cities - raising tension with some Shiite tribesmen and fighters who have pledged to halt attacks. Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered a six-month cease-fire for his Mahdi Army militia, but some members have broken away and violated the pledge which expires later this month.
US and Iraqi forces say they are targeting rogue, criminal elements of his and other militias. But several Shiite imams, during Friday prayers, suggested Iraqi forces were taking advantage of the cease-fire to crack down on rival groups. (Link)
---------- Individuals that were arrested include members of the Mujahedeen e-Khalq which the article states "Thousands of its members remain in Iraq, and both the US and Iraq consider the Khalq a terrorist organization." Their label as a terrorist organization, while officially true, in practice is not. I'd given a talk last year that turned an eye towards the organization. The MEK, an organization that calls for the overthrow of the Iranian government, was considered a terrorist organization in the 70s when it was based in Iran under the Shah, and was alleged to have killed several U.S. Military officials. Currently it is based in Iraq and runs out of a base in the North protected by the American military. There had been significant argument in the U.S. Congress in 2000 to remove them from the terrorist list, and 200 members of Congress signed a request in their favor. The idea was to use them as an intelligence gathering source on the Irani government, as well as to use them in a campaign to push for its overthrow. A lot of that information the U.S. government says it has gathered on Iran's nuclear program comes from this group. They are accused to be running prison camps in Iraq where they have committed human rights violations. PBS does an interview with Iraqi, American and MEK officials thay you can find here. It is in no way all encompassing, but the Wikipedia article is also quite comprehensive.Lebanon delays vote for 14th time (BBC)
The speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri, said the vote was now scheduled for 26 February.
Lebanon has been without a president since 23 November due to divisions between the pro-Western ruling majority and pro-Syrian opposition.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa has left Beirut after failing to mediate a solution to the crisis.
Mr Moussa has been to Lebanon three times this year to promote a plan calling for the election of the Lebanese army chief, General Michel Suleiman, as president, followed by the formation of a national unity government.
Rival Lebanese factions have agreed in principle to elect Gen Suleiman, but have repeatedly disagreed over constitutional details and the make-up of the cabinet.
The governing coalition has rejected an opposition demand for veto power in the government or a three-way split that would share portfolios equally between it, the ruling coalition and ministers appointed by the president.
The deadlock over the president is Lebanon's worst political crisis since the country's long civil war ended in 1990. (Link)
Labels: Lebanon
Guantanamo Legal Adviser Refuses To Say Iranians Waterboarding is illegal
Friday, February 8, 2008
Comment: The Wrong Side in Pakistan (Progressive)
There’s one segment of the population missing from Washington’s Pakistan policy: the people of Pakistan.
From the birth of that country in 1947, U.S. policy toward Pakistan has been based on investing in those leaders who are seen as most likely to do Washington’s bidding. Unfortunately for Pakistani citizens, this has usually meant a repressive general. The latest in this line is Pervez Musharraf.
U.S. policy is partly to blame for the current tragedy in Pakistan. The Bush Administration encouraged the return of Benazir Bhutto. Desperate to provide a democratic veneer to Musharraf’s rule, the United States—through the strenuous efforts of Condoleezza Rice and John Negroponte—brokered a power-sharing arrangement. Musharraf would have retained the presidency, with real control over security matters in his hands, and Bhutto would have been allowed to participate in parliamentary elections in the hope of being elected prime minister.
Even before Bhutto’s assassination, Musharraf’s declaration of martial law had made their political cohabitation unlikely. Her killing ended any chance that Musharraf would usher in a meaningful power-sharing arrangement.
Strangely enough, some U.S. officials are hoping against hope now for an understanding between Musharraf and ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a wish that’s almost laughable. Sharif tried to have Musharraf killed in 1999, and Musharraf came to power by ousting him.
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has not cured Washington of its infatuation with Musharraf and the army that has ruled and ruined the nation. (As a popular saying in Pakistan goes, three As dominate the country: Allah, America, and the Army.) (Link)
Khatami declares pre-election 'catastrophe' (Daily Star)
Leading reformist candidate Mohammad Reza Aref, a former first vice president in Khatami's reformist administration, has also pulled out of the race despite being approved as he sees no point in standing, officials said.
Executive committees working under the Interior Ministry last month disqualified more than 2,000 mainly reformist candidates who were judged unsuitable to stand in the March 14 vote. Reformist officials have said the disqualifications have wrecked their chances of challenging the current conservative dominance of Parliament.
"To see the credentials of good, Muslim people being rejected is a problem," Khatami said in comments carried by the ISNA agency late Wednesday.
"But a big and more sorrowful problem is the trend [of disqualification] which I believe jeopardizes the revolution, the system and the wellbeing of society," he added. (Link)
Labels: Iran
Hariri lashes out at Iran and Syria, calls for massive protest (Daily Star)
Parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri
blasted Syria and Iran on Thursday for interfering in Lebanese politics and urged a massive turnout for a rally on the third anniversary of his father's assassination. "On February 14, we will all go down to Martyrs Square to say in one voice that the Lebanese are united, that they reject terrorism and that all attempts to intimidate us won't succeed," Hariri said in a fiery speech to his supporters at his residence in Qoreitem.
"On February 14 we will converge on Martyrs Square from all corners of the country to speak out loud in one voice that we want a president ... to say that the road to the presidency cuts through Beirut and the Parliament building, not through Damascus, Tehran or any other capital," he added.
"We are faced with the political and terrorist presence in Lebanon of the Syrian and Iranian regimes, but we will not sit by and watch," he said.
"If confrontation is our destiny, then we stand ready," Hariri said. (Link)
---This has all the overtones of the old civil war. An uprising in the Palestinian camps, a factional split over politics, questions of succession... the only difference so far is that Iran has replaced Egypt, though Syria and the US are still firmly involved, and the fact that memories of a recent violent civil war hopefully indicate political maturity. Each side blames the other for being supported by foreign powers seeking to subvert the nation, and both sides have a point, but Hariri's coalition is rapidly loosing support in favor of Hezbollah's growing nationalist credentials.Labels: Comment, Lebanon, Syria
A million Iraqi victims: Do they deserve an international tribunal? (Daily Star)
Over one million Iraqi citizens have died since the US-led invasion in 2003 according to the recent survey conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB). The survey found that 20 percent of Iraqi citizens had had at least one death in their household as a result of the conflict, rather than natural causes. Narmin Othman, Iraqi minister of state for women's affairs said in an interview to the Al-Hayat newspaper on February 1, 2008 "over two million Iraqi women lost their husbands and were left without any supporter for themselves and their kids. They became victims of tyranny, poverty and exploitation." The US Department of Defense announced that about 600 Iraqi children, most between 15 and 17 years old, are detained in the Camp Cropper prison, which is a holding facility for security detainees operated by the United States Army near Baghdad International Airport. These are just very little examples among the huge amount of violations that the Iraqi people are facing daily under the American occupation of Iraq, which represents the lofty history and noble culture of the entire Arab nation.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) non-governmental organization announced in its recent report on January 31, 2008 that the killing of at least 17 Iraqi civilians by employees of the US security firm Blackwater last September focuses attention on the impunity with which private contractors operate in Iraq. However, war determiners do not have any judicial inquiry. The question is: How does the "civilized world" accept violating the life and dignity of an entire nation in this barbarian way? How does this world become dumb while millions of humans are living in an absolute hell? I have always tried to answer this question in the last three years, and now I find the answer in an interview published in Foreign Policy in Focus on January 23, 2008 by Michael Shank with the great American writer Noam Chomsky. He wrote: "there is a shared assumption here and in the West that we own the world. Unless you accept that assumption, the entire discussion that is taking place is unintelligible." From this precept, added Chomsky, the US talks about "the foreign fighters in Iraq." Those foreign fighters are definitely not the Americans, rather they are some Arab fighters, as the 160,000 American troops are not foreign fighters because they occupied Iraq and it became in their own hold! (Link)
C.I.A. Chief Doubts Tactic to Interrogate Is Still Legal (NY Times)
WASHINGTON — Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told a Congressional committee on Thursday that waterboarding may be illegal under current law, despite assertions this week from the director of national intelligence and the White House that the harsh interrogation method may be used in the future.
General Hayden said that while “all the techniques we’ve used have been deemed to be lawful,” laws have changed since waterboarding was last used nearly five years ago.
“It is not included in the current program, and in my own view, the view of my lawyers and the Department of Justice, it is not certain that the technique would be considered to be lawful under current statute,” General Hayden said before the House Intelligence Committee. (Link)
Burns: U.S. sees 'no need at all' for additional Iran nuclear plants (Haaretz)
"We would not see any need for Iran to build additional nuclear power plants. Not at all," Burns said in an interview when asked about a report quoting Iran's ambassador to Russia as saying Tehran was building a second atomic power plant.
Burns also said Iran's rocket launch test on Monday and media reports this week that it has begun testing an advanced centrifuge were "deeply disturbing" and strengthened the argument for quick passage of a third United Nations Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Tehran for its nuclear work.
The council has demanded that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment activities, which can produce fuel for a nuclear weapon or for power plants. Western powers suspect Iran is seeking to produce an atomic bomb. Tehran has said its nuclear program is to generate power so it can export more oil. (Link)
Sunni vs. Shia: The Real Bloody Battle for Baghdad (Independent)
Reconciliation between Sunni and Shia, seen by the US as essential for political progress in Iraq, is not happening. The difficulty in introducing measures to conciliate members of the old regime is illustrated by the way in which a new law, originally designed to ease the path of former Baath party members into government jobs will, in practice, intensify the purge against them.
The framers of the law wanted Baathists to be able to get their jobs back in the Iraqi military, security services and elsewhere. But the Iraqi parliament has a Shia majority, and the legislation signed into law last Sunday will make it more difficult for the former Baathists to work for the government. (Link)
The Next President’s Iran Dilemma (In These Times)
Quick: Who is the strategic victor, to date, of the war in Iraq? Nearly everyone outside the Bush administration (and perhaps some within it) would answer: the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The catastrophe of the U.S. occupation of Iraq has bolstered the clerical regime in Tehran, while souring ordinary Iranians on the prospect of U.S.-delivered “democracy.” The occupation has done so by emplacing Iranian-backed Shiite Islamists in power in Baghdad and cooling the jets of those in Washington hoping to “shock and awe” Iran’s mullahs.
Meanwhile, Iran has proceeded with its efforts to obtain enriched uranium, the material it needs for the peaceful generation of nuclear power, but that the international community fears it would use to manufacture an atomic bomb. (Link)
Iraq 'Shia militia leader' held (BBC)
The most prominent Shia militia, the Mehdi Army, has been observing a ceasefire since August.
The US military has accused what it calls rogue elements of failing to observe the truce.
The ceasefire is due to expire at the end of February, and correspondents say it is not clear if it will be renewed.
A US military press release said the arrested man was believed to be a "special groups" leader - language the military uses to describe Shia militias allegedly backed by Iran.
Correspondents say the US military has been careful not to accuse Moqtatda Sadr, the leader of the Mehdi Army, himself of any role in attacks by Shia militants.
They instead blame rogue militiamen violating his cease-fire order. (Link)
Robert Fisk: Torture does not work, as history shows (Independent)
"Torture works," an American special forces major – now, needless to say, a colonel – boasted to a colleague of mine a couple of years ago. It seems that the CIA and its hired thugs in Afghanistan and Iraq still believe this. There is no evidence that rendition and beatings and waterboarding and the insertion of metal pipes into men's anuses – and, of course, the occasional torturing to death of detainees – has ended. Why else would the CIA admit in January that it had destroyed videotapes of prisoners being almost drowned – the "waterboarding" technique – before they could be seen by US investigators?
Yet only a few days ago, I came across a medieval print in which a prisoner has been strapped to a wooden chair, a leather hosepipe pushed down his throat and a primitive pump fitted at the top of the hose where an ill-clad torturer is hard at work squirting water down the hose. The prisoner's eyes bulge with terror as he feels himself drowning, all the while watched by Spanish inquisitors who betray not the slightest feelings of sympathy with the prisoner. Who said "waterboarding" was new? The Americans are just apeing their predecessors in the inquisition. (Link)
Labels: Editorial, Torture, U.S.
Iran to hold Iraq talks with US (BBC)
The talks are set to take place after 12 February, Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.
Three previous sessions have all ended in deadlock, with both sides blaming the other for the continued fighting.
The US accuses Iran of encouraging radical Shia groups in Iraq, while Iran blames the violence on the prolonged presence of US troops in the country. (Link)
Briton jailed for four years in Dubai after customs find cannabis weighing less than a grain of sugar under his shoe (Daily Mail)
Keith Brown, a council youth development officer, was travelling through the United Arab Emirates on his way back to England when he was stopped as he walked through Dubai's main airport.
A search by customs officials uncovered a speck of cannabis weighing just 0.003g - so small it would be invisible to the naked eye and weighing less than a grain of sugar - on the tread of one of his shoes.
Dubai International Airport is a major hub for the Middle East and thousands of Britons pass through it every year to holiday in the glamorous beach and shopping haven.
But many of those tourists and business travellers are likely to be unaware of the strict zero-tolerance drugs policy in the UAE.
One man has even been jailed for possession of three poppy seeds left over from a bread roll he ate at Heathrow Airport. Painkiller codeine is also banned.
.........
A 25-year-old Briton who was found with a similar speck in one pocket as he arrived on holiday has been awaiting sentence since November.
.........."What many travellers may not realise is that they can be deemed to be in possession of such banned substances if they can be detected in their urine or bloodstream, or even in tiny, trace amounts on their person."
........
"As we understand, the amount of cannabis was barely visible to the human eye and was at the bottom of the pocket of an old pair of jeans. (Link)
----------------------- Lesson... If you need to do a regional transit, take the extra hour and go through Bahrain instead.----------------------
Update: Independent Followup Article "Dubai tourists warned over tough drug stance"
Gaza rocket barrage hits Israel (BBC)
Israeli officials say nearly 20 devices were launched on Friday, causing no injuries and little damage.
Late on Thursday, Israel began cutting back on the electricity it supplies to Gaza from the Israeli grid.
On Thursday Israeli strikes killed seven people in Gaza - six of them militants - in operations aimed at halting the rocket fire.
Israel has cut back what it says is 1% of the power it supplies to Gaza. (Link)
Report: Tehran says it is building a second atomic power plant (Haaretz)
"Now we need to think about the fuel for it," the news agency quoted him as saying.
Iran has been building its first nuclear power plant near the southern city of Bushehr, where Tehran says test operations could start later this year after final deliveries by Russia of nuclear fuel arrived at the plant last month.
Western countries suspect Iran's nuclear activities are aimed at weapon building. Iran, the world's fourth-largest crude oil producer, says it only wants to generate electricity so that it can export more of its oil and gas. (Link)
Labels: Iran
Probe says blast killed Bhutto (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Pakistan
Waterboarding is legal, White House says (LA Times)
The surprise assertion from the Bush administration reopened a debate that many in Washington had considered closed. Two laws passed by Congress in recent years -- as well as a Supreme Court ruling on the treatment of detainees -- were widely interpreted to have banned the CIA's use of the extreme interrogation method.
But in remarks that were greeted with disbelief by some members of Congress and human rights groups, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said that waterboarding was a legal technique that could be employed again "under certain circumstances." (Link)
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Mukasey Rejects Criminal Probe Into Waterboarding (Washington Post)
Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said this morning that waterboarding was deemed legal by the Justice Department at the time it was used by the CIA on three al-Qaeda captives, and as a result the Justice Department "cannot possibly" investigate whether a crime occurred.
In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Mukasey said that because waterboarding was part of a program approved by Justice lawyers, there is no way the department can open a criminal investigation into the practice.
"Waterboarding, because it was authorized to be part of a program ... cannot possibly be the subject of a Justice Department investigation," Mukasey said in response to questions from panel Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.).
"That would mean that the same department that authorized the program would now prosecute someone for taking part" in it, he said. (Link)
Abu Hamza faces extradition to US (BBC)
The 49-year-old from west London is wanted by the American authorities on 11 charges.
City of Westminster Magistrates Court approved the extradition in November and the decision has now been ratified by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. (Link)
Hamas source: Extremists poured into Gaza (JPost)
Thousands of Arab men have flocked into the Gaza Strip from Egypt in the past two weeks, offering to join in the fight against Israel, sources close to Hamas said Wednesday.
The men, who came from Egypt and several other Arab countries, entered the Gaza Strip after the border with Egypt was torn down, the sources said, adding that they had offered to join Hamas and other armed groups.
Egyptian sources said the men had toured a number of training bases and security installations belonging to Hamas and other groups and expressed their desire to remain in the Gaza Strip and launch attacks against Israel.
The sources said some of the men had recently fled from Iraq, where they had been carrying out attacks against US troops. (Link)
Labels: Iraq, Israel, Palestine
Egyptian FM: Whoever breaks border will have his legs broken (Haaretz)
The ministry issued this warning two weeks after Palestinian militants blew holes in a section of the barrier wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt prompting hundreds of thousands of Gazans to pour across the frontier.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in comments carried by the state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) on Thursday that Egyptian efforts were continuing with Israel and the European Union to re-open the Rafah border crossing "in a legal way."
Aboul Gheit blasted Hamas for recent fighting with Israel that it called "cartoonish and comical".
He said Hamas rockets that were "lost in the sands of Israel" were simply prompting Israel Defense Forces to strike at Gaza, causing harm to Palestinians. (Link)
Labels: Egypt, Israel, Palestine
Gaza teacher killed in Israel raid (Al Jazeera)
Hani Shaban Naim, 43, a father of five, was killed early on Thursday by an Israeli missile in his classroom in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
In my view: Iraqi blogger (Al Jazeera)
As part of Al Jazeera's coverage of the"Super Tuesday" polls, Iraqi blogger Raed Jarrar, who writes the Raed in the Middle weblog and now lives in the US, explains his thoughts on the US political process and why it is in dire need of an overhaul.
When I first immigrated to the US in 2005, I was interested in foreign policy issues and spent most of my time working to end the occupation of Iraq and stop the blind support and unlimited aid to Israel.
Then I had a life-changing incident in 2006, when I was stopped at an airport in New York and prevented from boarding to my airplane because my T-shirt had the words "we will not be silent" in both Arabic and English printed on it.
A TSA [transportation security officer] told me that coming to a US airport with Arabic words on my T-shirt was equivalent to visiting a bank while wearing a shirt that read "I'm a robber".
After making me cover my shirt, the officers changed my seat from the front to the back of the airplane. (Link)
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